Tyndall, Versteeg, Trojan, Williamson Traverse beta request
Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2016 12:10 pm
Hi HST! I'm new here. I just got back from a failed attempt at traversing from Tyndall to Versteeg, Trojan, and Williamson. Wondering if anyone here has done this and can share some beta? Tyndall was fast and fun via the North Rib, but from there we had very little beta save for the stretch between versteeg and Trojan (what looked like the easiest part). After a lot of talus hopping and weaving in and out of gullies and ridges, we ended up atop the most prominent sub peak along Tyndall's southwest ridge. There was actually a summit register up there with only one folded piece of graph paper with about a half dozen logs going back to the 70s. No name for this peak could I find (should I name it? Ha). From the notch south of this summit, the ridge line became class 5. We decided to descend south west down into a loose gully in hopes of traversing lower. This gully cliffed out so we traversed south to peer over a steep rib into another gully. Another cliff-out. We brought rope and some pro for emergency rappells but decided not to chance it this late in the day (we got a late start) so struck the whole mission, headed back up and over Tyndall, down the rib, into Williamson bowl and up to Lake Hellen of Troy to scope the rest of the route from below.
Looking back on it now, it probably would have gone with a couple rappells, but at the time, it felt off-route and not safe considering our lack of good beta.
From Hellen of Troy I noticed something: Regarding the last ridge traverse from Trojan to Williamson, there looks like a pretty obvious route up Williamson from the small peak in the ridge between Trojan and Williamson. The route would start on the moraine to the east of the mouth of Hellen of Troy, looks class two or three up to the small peak, then a pretty sweet looking ridge traverse across the black rock to the pinnacles on the southwest "ridge" of Williamson. From there, one could join up with the Bolton Brown route to the summit. I looked for beta on this route before and found none... It would be Williamson via the Southwest Ridge. Anybody? Looks preferable to the sloggy "tourist route" up the west face.
Thanks everybody!
Jonah
Looking back on it now, it probably would have gone with a couple rappells, but at the time, it felt off-route and not safe considering our lack of good beta.
From Hellen of Troy I noticed something: Regarding the last ridge traverse from Trojan to Williamson, there looks like a pretty obvious route up Williamson from the small peak in the ridge between Trojan and Williamson. The route would start on the moraine to the east of the mouth of Hellen of Troy, looks class two or three up to the small peak, then a pretty sweet looking ridge traverse across the black rock to the pinnacles on the southwest "ridge" of Williamson. From there, one could join up with the Bolton Brown route to the summit. I looked for beta on this route before and found none... It would be Williamson via the Southwest Ridge. Anybody? Looks preferable to the sloggy "tourist route" up the west face.
Thanks everybody!
Jonah